Monthly Archives: April 2013

In the “You can’t make stuff this stupid up” department, a POSCO Energy board member, on a Korean Air flight from Incheon to L.A., was unhappy with his ramen so he reportedly whacked the flight attendant with a magazine.

Yeah.

Apparently, he first became unruly when he couldn’t get rice porridge and then became doubly incensed that the ramen he was given instead was too salty and not cooked properly.

Oh, and in a fit of defiance, he refused to buckle his seatbelt.

The pilot alerted U.S. authorities of the incoming knucklehead and, upon landing in L.A., Mr. Ramen was greeted by FBI agents and given the option to submit to questioning or return home. He took the next flight back –on another airline I would imagine.

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Nice article and interview in the Joonang Ilbo today about Korean-American stage actor Michael Lee playing the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

The title of the piece is, wait for it… “Korean-American resurrects role of Jesus in ‘Superstar'”

Lee is a veteran of the stage and has been involved with JC Superstar in various roles over the years.

Seeking to entrust the role of Jesus to someone with confidence, the organizer chose veteran Broadway musical actor Michael Lee, 39, who may be the only actor who has performed four of the roles in the musical. He first played Pontius Pilate in high school, then played Simon Zealotes, Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ on Broadway.

You can check out the rest of the article for yourself here, and hear audio of the performance here. (Here, hear)

I never took much too to the church hymnals forced on me weekly by my parents (aside of “Morning has Broken” –coz Cat re-did it) but used to play my mother’s LP of the Superstar soundtrack quite a bit as a kid and quite enjoyed the title track. Perhaps because I could utter the word “hell” without upsetting dear ol’ mom.

I went back and read the KT article and even itdidn’t say anything about terrorism. Headline fail.

Update: Even though several in the comments section (as well as the entirety of the world media) have said it is not terrorism, the KT has not changed the headline yet and have actually added a photo next to the headline in the past few hours since I last checked. Maybe they know something others don’t?

Girl bands need to capture the attention of fans in a foreign market so it is essential to bare more skin,” said Kim Won, an expert in Korean entertainment and culture. “But a sexy concept has its limitations and singers must show a unique talent to stay competitive.

Girls’ Generation at the Busan film fest, sans pole –you can decide the lesser of two ‘innocents’.

The article cites several instances, such as the Girls’ Generation, “who appeal to fans in Korea with their innocent image,” performing a pole dance in Japan wearing outfits that look like lingerie.

The article also mentions T-Ara (pictured above) making the lingerie play to for the Japanese market. And you thought that ‘Easter in the Saloon’ look died out with the old west didn’t ya?

In fact, according to my limited research on the Interweb, much of the article seems spurious in its contrasts.

So those of you considering booking flights to Japan out of worry you can’t catch the provocative version of K-pop here on the peninsula, worry not –there is really no big difference from what’s happening on stages in the ROK.

The thing is, K-Pop is based on being provocative both in Korea and abroad. Sure, there’s great choreography, good voices and catchy tunes, but in the end it’s all about the appearance of the girls that are dancing, singing and performing and what they are wearing while doing it.

This is not some form of fine art for disgruntled neighbors (on both sides) to pick at and draw nuanced contrasts on. I can just see Michelangelo now, dishing comments to a reporter: “That damned DaVinci is showing more skin in his paintings! I’ll make a nude statue and show him who’s provocative!”

T-ara performing recently in Japan. Apparently there is video of some Japanese fans laughing at the girl 3rd from the left for having trouble rising from the “sexy squat dance.” Some nationalist netizens went nuts. Yeah.

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Is PSY’s new video promoting the art of being obnoxious or a piece of clever commentary decrying how people treat each other? Or, is just PSY doing what he’s always done –pushing society’s buttons as we pay to watch him do it? Either way, a billion hits, here he comes.

BUSAN, South Korea — When I first heard PSY’s new song, “Gentleman”, I thought, “Meh, nothing special… not bad.” It will appease the big fans and is impressive enough for me that I won’t turn the dial when it comes on the radio.

And then I saw the video this morning and my take on the new tune went a bit deeper. While it’s very well produced and complements the catchy song, it did leave me unsure of the intended message. In a nutshell, the “Gentleman” video is basically 3:54 of PSY being randomly obnoxious to innocent bystanders, comprised overwhelmingly of women, as well as a group of kids on a soccer pitch.

Aside of it being interlaced with choreographed “Butt Dancing” in dozens of locales, the primary theme of the video is PSY playing the trickster with no regard for consequence. From “catching” a fart and throwing it in a stranger’s face in the library, to yanking off the top of sunbathers by the pool, it is an ode to obnoxiousness from near beginning to end. Is this trope a bit of clever satire or a validation to be obnoxious? Or is it simply PSY just being funny?

Aside of the obvious play on irony with the title “Gentleman”, no matter what the creative team behind the video might say it all means, we are only left with the imagery that we perceive as viewers and what we walk (or Butt Dance) away from it with.

The response on YouTube has been positive thus far, with 464,460 “likes” and62,829 “dislikes” at this writing, and looking well on its way to being another big hit for the 35-year-old rapper whose made his name in the ROK, for better than a decade, by pushing society’s more envelope through the vehicle of infectious tunes.

What message, if any, is PSY trying to get across?

We could ask how will this play in a male-dominated culture. For better or for worse Korea ranks 108th on the Global Gender Gap index sandwiched between two bastions of progressive liberalism, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Be it the wealthy Korean national who told a Canadian divorce court last week about “an old saying that a woman before marriage will obey her father, a woman after marriage will obey her husband, and after giving birth to a son and the son is old enough, then a woman will be obedient to her son,” to the 2010 Korea National Survey of Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence that found “53.8 percent of respondents had experienced spousal abuse in the previous year,” and how 18 percent of the time police didn’t bother responding to the call.

Suffice it to say that abuse and discrimination towards women around the world is a pressing concern that vexes most of us to seemingly no end. A music video will certainly not remedy this, but the imagery of picking on women for laughs certainly doesn’t help.

It is interesting to note how, at the very beginning of the video, we see several much older Korean men on what is obviously a “girls’ day out” shopping. They carry brand name shopping bags through the store, they are finely groomed and manicured and they all end up sipping expensive caffeine in an outdoor cafe.

Is this where the clever commentary begins?

Or is the whole thing just a music video and I have wasted several minutes of your time for what might well be nothing more than column inches for commentators such as myself? Up to you, but it’s a worthy discussion topic considering PSY’s fame and influence now rivals icons such as Eminem, Chris Brown and others who catch hell for their portrayal of how people treat each other.

Will this induce more men around the world to more often be rude to others? Who knows, except that, sadly, it’s nothing new. Is this a chance for parents and peer groups to say, “Hey, douchebag, cut that out!” Hopefully so.

There is also the well publicized issue of bullying in South Korea where, in some cases, continued abuse at the hands of classmates has led to suicide. It’s become such a pressing issue that the current and previous president both vowed to aggressively address the problem. Bullies generally aren’t too bright, so they are unlikely to blame a music video in the principle’s office as a rationale for thuggish acts. But the obvious case is there if they wanted to make it after throwing a fart in a classmate’s face.

Perhaps PSY’s saving grace in this debate is that he is simply a really nice guy. If you’ve ever seen him interviewed, his demeanor and character are one of a humble and gracious man who, by all outward appearance, is a dedicated husband and father who would unlikely approve of the behavior in the video within his own circle. And there’s the wash. Why glamorize it, then? That’s not a question any of us can answer.

During one interview, as “Gangnam Style” was blazing across the planet, an English talk show host commented that PSY was wearing, those “little, tiny, what we call ‘lady socks’”.

To which PSY coyly replied, “You know, I don’t know why, but some lady things really fit for me.”

Oh well. Enjoy the video for what it is, which is entertainment, take from it what you will, which is what you would anyway, and by all means please, be nice to the ladies and to your classmates, OK?

He points to a Donga Ilbo poll last week, showing that “4.5 percent of South Koreans think North Korea means to start a war. In contrast, a CNN poll reveals that 51 percent of Americans think the latest round of name-calling will only end in war, and 41 percent think North Korea is an ‘immediate threat’ to the U.S.”

What for? asks Kang:

Reading the entire statements by the KCNA would actually give a fairly clear view of North Korea’s position. The problem is that most North Korean statements reported in the Western press are done so with the first clause missing. That is, almost all North Korean rhetoric is of the form “IF you attack us first, we will hit you back.” Incidentally, that’s what we’re telling the North Koreans, too.

If you can ignore the hilarious Communist-style rhetoric about ‘capitalist running dogs’ and the like, the situation is actually quite stable, because despite their bluster, the North Korean rhetoric is also cast almost entirely in deterrent terms.

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I didn’t know it, but apparently jazz is seeing its star rising on the peninsula. Not that bland Kenny G kinda “jazz”, but the good ol’ traditional stuff. There were over 100 jazz offerings released in Korea in 2012 alone.

Among other things, I was curious why she chose to sing only in English, a language she scarcely speaks, on her debut CD The Rising Sun. Her response was interesting:

“Frankly, when I sing in Korean, I cannot sing well, especially the high-pitched tones. It is really difficult to sing in Korean, as other musicians will attest,” says Lee. “Even though Korean can be very poetic and highly expressive, it is not easy to sing well.”

One other thing of note, which I didn’t include in the article, was concerning her choice of the title “The Rising Sun.” Lee was a bit shocked when I explained, through the interpreter, the Japanese connection to that term. I have a feeling she’ll be a little more thorough in researching the name of her next release.

You can read the rest and check out some of Jumi Lee’s great tunes here.